Gopher football’s Casey O’Brien rides ever-positive attitude to 5th triumph over cancer

Chris Long

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It’s hard to imagine a back-up holder served up the play of the year for a college football team, but Gopher fans won’t ever forget Casey O’Brien’s first play against Rutgers last fall.

O’Brien’s collegiate debut came during the Gophers historic 2019 season after he’d beaten cancer four times.

Since the conclusion of the season, he’s now beaten cancer for a fifth time.

Click the video box on this page to see KSTP Sports’ story on Casey O’Brien’s latest triumph and how he continues to serve as an inspiration to others – as well as his full interview with KSTP’s Chris Long

After doctors detected a spot on his lungs, O’Brien began chemotherapy treatment shortly after the Gophers returned from their Outback Bowl win over Auburn.

Casey O'Brien (left) and P.J. Fleck (right) embrace after O'Brien made his college football debut in a game against Rutgers during the 2019 season[Big Ten Network]

While juggling Gopher football’s ‘virtual spring practice’ meetings and his college coursework, O’Brien had been undergoing his weekly treatments at the U of M Masonic Childrens Hospital for the last five months.

"To be able to have classwork to do, then go to the hospital do chemo and be able to Zoom from the hospital into our position meetings or whatever we have going on for football – just kind of keeping my mind off of things – has really helped me honestly," O’Brien said.

Casey concluded his course of treatment – earning his 5th triumph over cancer – just a few days before wrapping up his spring semester final exams.

O’Brien has been a beacon of inspiration during his battles against cancer, and his battle to take the field as a Gopher.

His college football debut came as he trotted onto the field in the Gophers game against Rutgers during their historic unbeaten streak to open the 2019 season.

"We were hopeful that if we got up on them that I was gonna have chance to play,’ he recalls. "I just prepared like I was gonna play all week and then I ended up getting the chance to play in the end of the game."

Thanks to fortuitous scheduling, O’Brien’s parents were able to make the trip to New Jersey and were there to see his first snap as a Gopher.

"They had been there for me through everything through all my stays in the hospital and surgeries and everything," he said. "To have them there and to be able to share that moment with those two was pretty special."

Asked what other moment from the storybook 2019 season stand out, O’Brien echoes the thoughts of many Gopher fans.

"Penn State game at home," he said with a definitive grin. "I’ve been growing up as a Gopher football fan my entire life – for my 21 years -and been to a lot of games. I’ve never been in a home game in that atmosphere.

"It was an 11:00 a.m. game and the student section was full at 10 when we came out for warmups. To play in that atmosphere and then have Bate (receiver Rashod Bateman) score on our first drive of the game – that place absolutely went crazy."

O’Brien’s resolve and positive influence has extended well beyond the field.

He’s befriended children he’s met in the hospital, served as the keynote speaker at the Big Ten’s football media day last fall and was given the Disney Spirit Award by ESPN and has carried himself with an impenetrable resolve all the way.

"I know that cancer has given me a really big platform to be able to inspire other people," he says. "To have the ability to do that on a national stage and have people looking up to me – or people watching how I’m gonna react – I know that I gotta be on my a game for everybody else who’s watching."

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there are plenty of questions when – or even if – his Gopher football team will reconvene in the fall.

What’s not in question… Casey plans to be there when it happens.

"I’m definitely considered to be higher risk, just due to the fact that my immune system is a little bit compromised with chemo," he says. "But at the same time, I’m not gonna to live in fear all day. I’m going to take the precautions that I’ve been advised by my doctors – wash my hands and do everything that I’m supposed to – but I’m also going to still live my life."

Living with the hope his fifth bout with cancer was his last.

"That’s the plan," he says. "Obviously, we’ve seen that it’s not always that simple but I have really good doctors and they’ve always had a plan for me. Whatever comes up, we’ll be able to handle it. But I hope to be clean scans the rest of the way out for my life."